william schaffner , who is here to discuss with us the third anniversary of the covid-19 pandemic andis next. dr. schaffner, good morning. guest: good to be with you. host: three years ago, march 11, the world health organization declared covid-19 a pandemic. since then, there has been a total of 104 million confirmed u.s. cases. there is been 1.1 milliou.s. deaths. around theorld, globally, there is been 600 76 million confird casesnd 7 million deaths. this is all since march 11. dr., is the pandemic over? guest: certainly in the united states and much of the developed world, we've moved from the pandemic phase to what we call the end that make phase. --endemic face. that means it is not stressing our health care system the way it was, but it is still around. it is being transmitted, but we are in a better phase, that is because so many of us have either had covid or been vaccinated, or both. what we call in medicine depopulation immunity is much higher than it was previously. also, the viral strains that are out there, omicron and its subvariants, are milder, but still very contagio

william schaffner , who is here to discuss with us the third anniversary of the covid-19 pandemic andis next. dr. schaffner, good morning. guest: good to be with you. host: three years ago, march 11, the world health organization declared covid-19 a pandemic. since then, there has been a total of 104 million confirmed u.s. cases. there is been 1.1 miion u.s. deaths. aroundhe world, globally, there is bn 600 76 million coirmed cases and 7 million deaths. this is all since march 11. dr., is the pandemic over? guest: certainly in the united states and much of the developed world, we've moved from the pandemic phase to what we call the end that make phase. --endemic face. that means it is not stressing our health care system the way it was, but it is still around. it is being transmitted, but we are in a better phase, that is because so many of us have either had covid or been vaccinated, or both. what we call in medicine depopulation immunity is much higher than it was previously. also, the viral strains that are out there, omicron and its subvariants, are milder, but still very contagio